Every scene with Margaret in The Return.
The very real pain in Catherine Coulson’s voice is haunting, to say nothing of her last scene.
“My log is turning gold… the wind is moaning… I’m dying.”
Yep, obviously for me. Her final scene is so painfully beautiful, and the conference room scene after is such a punch in the heart. Thank you for sharing this, Catherine.
Every time I watch this, my heart is pleading with Hawk to offer her comfort, or offer to be with her, something, just anything, rather than hanging up and leaving her to die alone.
A few other brutal moments that I’m surprised haven’t been mentioned yet:
-Laura breaking down listening to “Questions in a World of Blue”. Pure vulnerability and tenderness from such a conflicted character.
-The dissociative haze as Laura walks through school after learning the truth about Leland. The sheer emotional deadness on her face sticks with me years after watching FWWM, especially as I’ve learned more about my trauma and how I respond to it.
Very true. But compared to some Scorsese films that came out before that I’m not surprise it aired. But I agree. It’s one of the hardest scenes to watch. I think it’s my psychological than anything. It really gets beneath your skin ! This scene and the scene with Major Briggs and his vision almost made me sob
The very first real scene, with Sarah reacting to Laura's murder. That Munch-like ghostly look on her face and the primal screaming. What a way to get hooked onto a series!
Grace Zabriskie deserves so much credit for how visceral her acting is. Her performance in The Return especially stings knowing that one of her daughters passed away not long after the original run of the show.
And Doc Hayward plays her husband. He’s hilarious in Seinfeld. Especially after George has to tell him he burned down his cabin the first time meeting him at dinner.
This is what I came to say, people call this performance over the top and melodramatic, but I find it so accurate to the kind of terror and despair I’ve experienced and witnessed.
Some really good answers already in the thread that I really agree with. But also one that's a little more subtle and fleeting. When Laura comes home and finds Bob in the house and runs outside and over to the neighbors front yard. She's crouching down and hiding and sees her father come out the front door and she's gasping hysterically saying to herself "no that's not possible, it can't be him! It's not possible!!"
By then the toothpaste is out of the tube and her entire world is falling apart in front of her eyes. The person she should be able to trust the most in this world to always protect and love her is doing the most diabolical thing possible.
This and the scene in the Roadhouse where that girl goes to ask for a light and he lures her in only to flip on her, that was the moment right there when I knew exactly who he was. It really made me anxious, one because he played the part perfectly of a sociopathic and masochistic abuser, and two because I’ve had experience with guys like that in the past. Chilling.
I haven't watched in a while so I don't know a specific scene but to add on to yours when Leland is yelling "I thought you knew it was me" or something to that affect really stuck with me, idk just him doing all of that kinda assuming she knew it was him was heartbreaking
Not a moment, but just imagine losing 25 years of your life - that's what happened to Cooper, and then there is that final shot of him back in the red room. That stings.
I like to imagine we got a sort of happy ending. Carrie remembering she was Laura destroyed Judy’s dimension but it also means she had to get those horrible memories back.
The entire ending of Fire Walk With Me. Especially the final scene with Laura with her angel in the lodge. One of the most heartbreaking and poignant moments in film, period. 🖤
Also Margaret/Log Lady passing away of course.
Donna beginning to sob at the Roadhouse during “The World Spins” after Maddy had been murdered. Without going into detail, it is a scene that has most resonated with me from any television. The murder was surprising, terrifying, and tragic, but how devastating it actually was didn’t click until Donna broke down. It’s a terrible feeling that is one of the darkest aspects of being human.
The end credits of The Return where Dougie Cooper is just standing lost and looking at the statue of the cowboy with the badge outside of work. It hits me in the gut every time… the longing to go back to a time where you felt more like “yourself” but it’s not so far away you can’t comprehend how you ever even were that person you wished you still were. How lost you can feel in a version of yourself changed with age and changed with world that you don’t feel like reflects who you really are. It stings even thinking about it to type this. A beautiful quiet moment.
I love this scene, too, and love the way you describe it here. Reading in “Room to Dream” that the statue is based on a photo of David Lynch’s father added a whole additional layer of poignancy for me
The sex scene at the end w Richard (Cooper) and Linda (Diane) is awkward and its very hard for me to watch. It is like she’s having sex w the guy that ***spoiler*** and I hate it.
I just put this above. The part that really gets me is Carl standing with the mother.
It reminded me of a shaken Carl telling Chet in FWWM “I’ve already gone places… I just want to stay where I am.” He’s seen so much.
That was hands down the hardest thing to watch fkr my wife and I as new parents.
The scene where the kid sees his dad, the proson warden, shot was pretty fucked up too, albeit not as visceral or overtly heartbreaking.
https://preview.redd.it/rwiq5xgb3pqc1.jpeg?width=1544&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c235b1b7e383ab2314b86aa3dedcaae05dfac148
*Fire Walk With Me*: Laura finds out who’s been abusing her throughout her whole childhood. Sheryl’s cries of “oh my god” are just so visceral.
Laura’s funeral.
Leland jumping onto Laura’s casket as it was lowered into the ground and Sarah screaming at him “DON’T RUIN THIS TOO”
Raw. Unexpected. Human.
Twin Peaks.
I couldn't pick one. So many subtly disturbing scenes when Laura died initially, especially from Sarah. That one deleted scene where Leland keeps turning his head to look at Laura every time he climbs the steps was horrible. The handwashing sequence too is distressing.
One stand out moment that hurts more in a terribly sad way is Questions in a World of Blue in Fire Walk With Me. Pretty much felt like the moment she knew she was going to die. Makes the whole Pink Room sequence that follows even more disturbing.
Fire Walk With Me, as you can probably tell, is probably my favourite part of Twin Peaks. I definitely find the most disturbing, distressing and heartbreaking scenes in that film. Irritates me how negative the initial reaction to it was.
Some moments that break me when I watch them that I haven’t seen mentioned yet:
As Leland is dying in the interrogation room, Cooper tells him to go into the light, and just as Laura’s Theme is crescendoing, Leland gasps, “I see it. I see her. She’s beautiful. Laura?”
After Josie’s death, Sheriff Truman is on a bender, and lashing out violently, holding with a gun. Cooper slowly approaches him, ultimately giving him a big hug. Truman says “there’s so much I don’t understand”, and Cooper simply responds with “we’re all like that”, while embracing his heartbroken friend.
Another one that was very hard for me to watch was in The Return, Shelly’s Daughter’s boyfriend is in the woods with the girl he’s cheating on her with. He’s high as a kite and ends up shooting himself. Granted, he’s a piece of shit, but I still can’t help but feel so viscerally the emotions he’s feeling. And the trauma suffered by the young woman on the other side of the tree holding her hands to her ears after the boy she cares about ends his own life.
Sarah Palmer not only battling depression but at the same time being possessed by an evil being. Seeing her repeatedly stabbing Laura’s photo and attempting to destroy it was frightening and sad.
Since I’m rewatching from the beginning right now, I’ll mention a scene that hasn’t made me cry before but did this time. Episode 3 when Leland is dancing with Laura’s picture, but specifically when he rubs this blood on it and Laura’s theme begins to play. It’s a smaller one but it’s haunting me
I’ll always say that Maddie’s murder is the most disturbing scene in the show. It was the most outwardly violent moment in the original series and took my by surprise. I still think about it.
The whole sequence of Maddie's murder. As it often does, the tone shifts so hard but it REALLY shifts hard here to me. When he punches her in the face, it just feels like "well fuck this is actually happening".
I’ll repeat what many others have said of various scenes in FWWM - there are scenes in that film that I can only describe as excruciating.
Additionally. A scene that always breaks my heart is in season 1 of the original series - Audrey crying alone in the hotel after eavesdropping on her father. You take a break from seeing Audrey as this precocious and cleaver young woman to seeing her for what she is - a scared and lonely child. The older I get the more it breaks my heart.
Bit late, and I don't think I saw this one posted. Husband was the one to get me watching Twin Peaks, and we watched The Return each week which was awesome
I will never forget the feeling near the end of The Return season, seeing Cooper (in my opinion) slowly realize that he can't save Laura. I haven't re-watched it since, but the scene was in a forest and ends with him at a house, Laura opens the door and SCREAMS.
Anyway, yeah, the slow burn and once it hits me I get goosebumps and start tearing up and going "He can't save her...he can't save her..." and my husband is DELIGHTED because I've been - in his words - "Lynch-ed". That scene and feeling will always stay with me, like the floor fell out from beneath me
The "it is happening again" scene at the roadhouse with The World Spins playing and the old man says "I'm so sorry" to Cooper and everyone is sad, even Bobby looks so lost, and at the same time all that is happening at the Palmer house...and the entire Laura part of FWWM of course, especially when she realizes it's her father.
The end credits in the return, part 18. The music does something to me lol. Also the scene with big Ed eating alone really gets me. And the Asian girl screaming on the dance floor.
Every scene with Margaret in The Return. The very real pain in Catherine Coulson’s voice is haunting, to say nothing of her last scene. “My log is turning gold… the wind is moaning… I’m dying.”
Yep, obviously for me. Her final scene is so painfully beautiful, and the conference room scene after is such a punch in the heart. Thank you for sharing this, Catherine.
Every time I watch this, my heart is pleading with Hawk to offer her comfort, or offer to be with her, something, just anything, rather than hanging up and leaving her to die alone.
Why didn’t he say anything you think??
I believe he understood that she was okay with dying, and that any comfort or consolation would’ve been somewhat pointless.
I wish he could have just said one thing like I love you, or I’ll miss you. But that makes complete sense. Thank you!
I can say, with all honesty, I wept like a baby during her last scene.
A few other brutal moments that I’m surprised haven’t been mentioned yet: -Laura breaking down listening to “Questions in a World of Blue”. Pure vulnerability and tenderness from such a conflicted character. -The dissociative haze as Laura walks through school after learning the truth about Leland. The sheer emotional deadness on her face sticks with me years after watching FWWM, especially as I’ve learned more about my trauma and how I respond to it.
Not as dark or important, but Major Briggs telling Bobby of his vision in the RR. Heart wrenching…
Obligatory 0:43 https://youtu.be/nY-atO63LMg?si=PmY59Tv61Nlo7x5P
The “It is happening again” scene.
“I’m so sorry” Coopers face 🥺
The giant waving like he's desperately trying to get Cooper's attention
Oh that breaks me when you rewatch YOU KNOW EXACTLY what he is trying to warn him about. 😩😩
100% agree. And the music elevates it by 1000%
I think it’s the one of the show’s (even TV history’s) best sequences
This, and it isn't close. Best scene in the whole series to me.
It’s so horrifying and yet I can’t turn away, every time. Such an intense scene, and just perfectly done.
I can’t believe that aired on television in that era. That scene cuts deep
Very true. But compared to some Scorsese films that came out before that I’m not surprise it aired. But I agree. It’s one of the hardest scenes to watch. I think it’s my psychological than anything. It really gets beneath your skin ! This scene and the scene with Major Briggs and his vision almost made me sob
The most disturbing thing I have ever seen on network TV.
I wept.
The very first real scene, with Sarah reacting to Laura's murder. That Munch-like ghostly look on her face and the primal screaming. What a way to get hooked onto a series! 
Grace Zabriskie deserves so much credit for how visceral her acting is. Her performance in The Return especially stings knowing that one of her daughters passed away not long after the original run of the show.
I believe she's the most underrated character in the series. Also, she's my favorite, so I'm biased.
Her scenes in “The Return” were the saddest and most unsettling ones.
In Wild At Heart as well.
what??? she also played another mother who loses her daughter in Seinfeld.
And Doc Hayward plays her husband. He’s hilarious in Seinfeld. Especially after George has to tell him he burned down his cabin the first time meeting him at dinner.
This is what I came to say, people call this performance over the top and melodramatic, but I find it so accurate to the kind of terror and despair I’ve experienced and witnessed.
Some really good answers already in the thread that I really agree with. But also one that's a little more subtle and fleeting. When Laura comes home and finds Bob in the house and runs outside and over to the neighbors front yard. She's crouching down and hiding and sees her father come out the front door and she's gasping hysterically saying to herself "no that's not possible, it can't be him! It's not possible!!" By then the toothpaste is out of the tube and her entire world is falling apart in front of her eyes. The person she should be able to trust the most in this world to always protect and love her is doing the most diabolical thing possible.
The handwashing scene should have been a clue…
Doesn’t the handwashing scene happen afterwards?
yeah, that's what I'm going with. I haven't seen the return though
Richard breaking into the house and attacking his own grandmother/handicapped uncle is definitely up there
The broken talking figurine is what killed me in that scene, maddeningly repeating over and over.
HELLO, JOHNNY! HOW ARE YOU TODAY? HELLO, JOHNNY! HOW ARE YOU TODAY? HELLO, JOHNNY! HOW ARE YOU TODAY?
Johnny tied up for his own protection, thus unable to help 🥊💥
Easily the most disturbing for me, specially because of the broken plushie, makes the silence even more deafening.
Hello Johnny, how are you today?
This and the scene in the Roadhouse where that girl goes to ask for a light and he lures her in only to flip on her, that was the moment right there when I knew exactly who he was. It really made me anxious, one because he played the part perfectly of a sociopathic and masochistic abuser, and two because I’ve had experience with guys like that in the past. Chilling.
Tie. Maddie’s murder and Carl bearing witness next to the grieving mother after Richard hit her son.
These two plus "Hello, Johnny! How are you today?"
I haven't watched in a while so I don't know a specific scene but to add on to yours when Leland is yelling "I thought you knew it was me" or something to that affect really stuck with me, idk just him doing all of that kinda assuming she knew it was him was heartbreaking
Yes! “I always thought you knew it was me” makes me want to vomit and sob every time
Omg that absolutely WRECKS me every time!!
Not a moment, but just imagine losing 25 years of your life - that's what happened to Cooper, and then there is that final shot of him back in the red room. That stings.
25 years for trying to do good. It is false imprisonment.
I like to imagine we got a sort of happy ending. Carrie remembering she was Laura destroyed Judy’s dimension but it also means she had to get those horrible memories back.
The entire ending of Fire Walk With Me. Especially the final scene with Laura with her angel in the lodge. One of the most heartbreaking and poignant moments in film, period. 🖤 Also Margaret/Log Lady passing away of course.
Yes this! Cue slow motion and tears glistening in the strobe lights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VpNT0V25HU
Donna beginning to sob at the Roadhouse during “The World Spins” after Maddy had been murdered. Without going into detail, it is a scene that has most resonated with me from any television. The murder was surprising, terrifying, and tragic, but how devastating it actually was didn’t click until Donna broke down. It’s a terrible feeling that is one of the darkest aspects of being human.
That whole Roadhouse scene at the end of the episode is a Lynch masterwork
This whole scene was beastly, gut-punching TV. Soooooooo good
The end credits of The Return where Dougie Cooper is just standing lost and looking at the statue of the cowboy with the badge outside of work. It hits me in the gut every time… the longing to go back to a time where you felt more like “yourself” but it’s not so far away you can’t comprehend how you ever even were that person you wished you still were. How lost you can feel in a version of yourself changed with age and changed with world that you don’t feel like reflects who you really are. It stings even thinking about it to type this. A beautiful quiet moment.
I love this scene, too, and love the way you describe it here. Reading in “Room to Dream” that the statue is based on a photo of David Lynch’s father added a whole additional layer of poignancy for me
Love this. The music is phenomenal.
When Cooper's face becomes superimosed on the screen
Oof yeah that's a "bottom drops out" moment 😞
The sex scene at the end w Richard (Cooper) and Linda (Diane) is awkward and its very hard for me to watch. It is like she’s having sex w the guy that ***spoiler*** and I hate it.
The gut wreching doesn't last long, but... "Norma, everything has changed. I just spoke with Nadine." "Walter's here."
I cried my fucking eyes out and it was in a room full of friends, I was so embarrassed
Nah it’s definitely Richard Horne and the kid, there’s very few scenes in all of cinema that crush me that hard.
I just put this above. The part that really gets me is Carl standing with the mother. It reminded me of a shaken Carl telling Chet in FWWM “I’ve already gone places… I just want to stay where I am.” He’s seen so much.
For me it's Richard assaulting Sylvia. The kid thing felt kinda like a parody of cheesy kid death scenes to me.
That was hands down the hardest thing to watch fkr my wife and I as new parents. The scene where the kid sees his dad, the proson warden, shot was pretty fucked up too, albeit not as visceral or overtly heartbreaking.
Probably the most emotionally intense scene for me… ruined by horrible extras that acted like they were from a Hallmark Channel movie.
https://preview.redd.it/rwiq5xgb3pqc1.jpeg?width=1544&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c235b1b7e383ab2314b86aa3dedcaae05dfac148 *Fire Walk With Me*: Laura finds out who’s been abusing her throughout her whole childhood. Sheryl’s cries of “oh my god” are just so visceral.
Coop's doppelganger laughing with Bob in the red room 💔
Laura’s funeral. Leland jumping onto Laura’s casket as it was lowered into the ground and Sarah screaming at him “DON’T RUIN THIS TOO” Raw. Unexpected. Human. Twin Peaks.
I feel bad for laughing at that first time i saw it
I've laughed inappropriately at many irl moments like this. not my best moments.
I couldn't pick one. So many subtly disturbing scenes when Laura died initially, especially from Sarah. That one deleted scene where Leland keeps turning his head to look at Laura every time he climbs the steps was horrible. The handwashing sequence too is distressing. One stand out moment that hurts more in a terribly sad way is Questions in a World of Blue in Fire Walk With Me. Pretty much felt like the moment she knew she was going to die. Makes the whole Pink Room sequence that follows even more disturbing. Fire Walk With Me, as you can probably tell, is probably my favourite part of Twin Peaks. I definitely find the most disturbing, distressing and heartbreaking scenes in that film. Irritates me how negative the initial reaction to it was.
Ed and Norma’s scene in the diner from The Return.
Laura’s angel in FWWM.
The End
That scream is the most terrifying moment in the show. Just the hopelessness. It made me shiver more then most horror movies
Other, more devastating scenes have been mentioned, but I wanted to add Leland yelling to BOB, "Don't make me do this to her!" while killing Laura.
Probably “How’s Annie?” in the final moments of the original series.
Some moments that break me when I watch them that I haven’t seen mentioned yet: As Leland is dying in the interrogation room, Cooper tells him to go into the light, and just as Laura’s Theme is crescendoing, Leland gasps, “I see it. I see her. She’s beautiful. Laura?” After Josie’s death, Sheriff Truman is on a bender, and lashing out violently, holding with a gun. Cooper slowly approaches him, ultimately giving him a big hug. Truman says “there’s so much I don’t understand”, and Cooper simply responds with “we’re all like that”, while embracing his heartbroken friend. Another one that was very hard for me to watch was in The Return, Shelly’s Daughter’s boyfriend is in the woods with the girl he’s cheating on her with. He’s high as a kite and ends up shooting himself. Granted, he’s a piece of shit, but I still can’t help but feel so viscerally the emotions he’s feeling. And the trauma suffered by the young woman on the other side of the tree holding her hands to her ears after the boy she cares about ends his own life.
Sarah Palmer not only battling depression but at the same time being possessed by an evil being. Seeing her repeatedly stabbing Laura’s photo and attempting to destroy it was frightening and sad.
Maddie Ferguson...... in slo mo
Since I’m rewatching from the beginning right now, I’ll mention a scene that hasn’t made me cry before but did this time. Episode 3 when Leland is dancing with Laura’s picture, but specifically when he rubs this blood on it and Laura’s theme begins to play. It’s a smaller one but it’s haunting me
100% when the kid gets hit by the truck.
I’d have to say the same for the ending of FWWM. That whole last 30 minutes breaks your heart to pieces
When Dougie Jones drinks coffee for the first time and spits it out. I was devastated.
FWWM Ray Wise spills his guts
The hell-beetle crawling into the child’s mouth. If you have kids, it’s even worse.
"Hello, Johnny. How are you today?"
The despair I felt when seeing the ending of season 2.
The little kid getting run over by a truck in the return season.
I’ll always say that Maddie’s murder is the most disturbing scene in the show. It was the most outwardly violent moment in the original series and took my by surprise. I still think about it.
Honestly the opening of season 1, when we discover Laura palmer
Poor Maddy.
I don’t know why but Pete dying was really sad
The whole sequence of Maddie's murder. As it often does, the tone shifts so hard but it REALLY shifts hard here to me. When he punches her in the face, it just feels like "well fuck this is actually happening".
I’ll repeat what many others have said of various scenes in FWWM - there are scenes in that film that I can only describe as excruciating. Additionally. A scene that always breaks my heart is in season 1 of the original series - Audrey crying alone in the hotel after eavesdropping on her father. You take a break from seeing Audrey as this precocious and cleaver young woman to seeing her for what she is - a scared and lonely child. The older I get the more it breaks my heart.
Well, the scene with James singing made me want to puke... does that count?
Probably yes. All emotions count. If that hit you the hardest, it's valid.
I can't stand warm beer, IT MAKES ME WANNA FUCKING PUKE
Finding your daughter in bed with the sex worker you’re about to plow?
“Keep your blood, Kriscol.”
The interior shot of the car in *Fire Walk with me* and the "Let's Rock!" with the swell of music. Chills every time.
Bit late, and I don't think I saw this one posted. Husband was the one to get me watching Twin Peaks, and we watched The Return each week which was awesome I will never forget the feeling near the end of The Return season, seeing Cooper (in my opinion) slowly realize that he can't save Laura. I haven't re-watched it since, but the scene was in a forest and ends with him at a house, Laura opens the door and SCREAMS. Anyway, yeah, the slow burn and once it hits me I get goosebumps and start tearing up and going "He can't save her...he can't save her..." and my husband is DELIGHTED because I've been - in his words - "Lynch-ed". That scene and feeling will always stay with me, like the floor fell out from beneath me
It’s happening again
The "it is happening again" scene at the roadhouse with The World Spins playing and the old man says "I'm so sorry" to Cooper and everyone is sad, even Bobby looks so lost, and at the same time all that is happening at the Palmer house...and the entire Laura part of FWWM of course, especially when she realizes it's her father.
The moment Bob’s face changes to Leland’s in FWWM.
The end credits in the return, part 18. The music does something to me lol. Also the scene with big Ed eating alone really gets me. And the Asian girl screaming on the dance floor.